A Man Made of Starlight
by Dancing Darkness
Summary: River Tam has always heard voices but never one quite like this. She makes a friend who will never forget her and she will never forget what he meant to her. 10th Doctor!


Well hey there, I'm back! Due to some unforseen problems, i.e. my laptop getting a rather nasty virus, the Doctor Who fics in my Unexpected Series have been lost/delayed. Please bare with me on that front!

This is a little something I've whipped up in the mean time. Hope you guys like it. I know it's a done thing but I just love the idea of River and the Doctor meeting.

Well, enough said!

Allons-y!

---

**A Man Made of Starlight**

It began as an itching, a niggle crying for attention. It was like leaving the light on and going out or not locking your door. There was something she should know, she was sure of it, but it was only half there. No more but a memory or a whisper lost in the bustle of their everyday life. Trapped in the hidey-holes of Serenity's cargo hold to be forgotten.

It bothered her that she forgot things. But it was so hard to remember these days, there were so many things going on. Oh the work was no busier than normal, no more risky and no less risky. It was her head that was all messed up and busy. It was so hard to remember to be a girl when there were voices just talking over and over, sometimes in languages she knew and sometimes not. They made it hard to concentrate and focus and then she burned the dinner _again_.

It was worst in the deep space when they were right on the edge of all they knew. She'd thought it would be quieter because they were further away from people and cities and noise. She liked that silence that lifelessness brought. She'd press her face to the cold hull door and feel the nothingness, the endless black quiet. She knew that the others stared at her but that was okay. She didn't mind their voices at all.

But lately it had been getting very bad because there were voices on the edge too. She couldn't understand what they said because they sounded like they were whispering from very far away and it didn't even seem to be in English. It was like a radio she couldn't turn off. It made it harder to beat Simon at chess.

Then she heard a voice she had never heard before and what a voice it was! It spoke in a tongue so old that the world around it _quaked_ and even stars turned to watch at its passing. Its voice was clear as a bell in the darkness. When she looked to it she was blinded by a brilliant light, a beacon shinning across the universe to guide lost souls home.

When it turned in her direction for the first time she sat right up in bed in shock. It was rolling towards her across the universe and she could almost taste the rain drops. She ran to the kitchen to help Kayleigh prepare breakfast. She couldn't help but smile. She would save the voice an apple!

She went to the hold to wait for him, sitting cross legged on the floor and staring at the great steel doors. She waited. Unfortunately she forgot to move.

She didn't realise how long she been there until the Captain came to get her. He was a good man, her Captain, a wolf almost - a predator among sheep and a leader of his pack. He even growled to prove it.

Right now he was not wearing his long coat and his shirt sleeves were rolled up. He smelled of gun oil. "Hey, little one," he greeted warmly, cleaning his hands with a dirty rag.

She smiled up at him and rocked slightly.

"A smile, huh?" he commented as he moved to slump down next to her. "That's kinda scary."

She only smiled wider and pushed him slightly.

He grinned back at her and rolled his shoulders, he moved his eyes to the door. "Why you sitting here anyway? You've been here for six hours..." he trailed off and she could see the worry.

She sighed, she knew she was broken and not like everyone else. She knew that worried then sometimes. She knew that they were only trying to make her better and didn't quite see all the things she did, didn't hear like she did. The best she could do was try and explain everything to them. "I'm waiting," she said after awhile.

"Shiny," the Captain remarked, "Who for?"

"A friend," she told him with a sage nod. It sounded about right.

She watched the Captain's eyebrows furrow; she knew that he knew she didn't really have any friends outside of Serenity. "What kind of friend?" he asked.

"We haven't really met yet," she conceded, a little sadly, "but when he gets here I know we'll be friends."

"How can you be friends...never mind," he shook his head with a chuckle. "Are they going to waiting for you when we next make planetfall, meimei?"

"Perhaps," she mused and ran a wandering hand through her hair. "Sometimes the wind blows it in and sometimes it comes to call." She cocked her head, "it's rather unpredictable."

"'It'?"

"The friend," she repeated slowly, eyes turning back to him.

"I see," he replied and heaved himself to his feet. "I suppose you're just going to wait there until your friend comes then?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

She nodded and returned her gaze to the doors.

"Shiny. Well remember to come up for dinner; your brother would kill me if you starved or anything." He moved away, striding toward the stairs and the bowels of the ship.

"Simon wouldn't hurt you, Captain," she laughed. "He's too happy right now. You know. Because of the baby," she mumbled without thinking.

"What baby?" he asked, pausing mid-stride and turning back slowly.

She just smiled.

----

It was like fire, suddenly ripping across her mindscape and searing her skin. The ice of cool intelligence and ruthless manipulation reached deep into her blood, right to her very heart, and clenched tight. A blazing anger filled her brain, painting the world red-blood-dark and howled at her ears so loud it hurt.

Then there was kindness. There was patience and mercy and so much gentleness. She'd never seen such a complexity. It was like the brain was twice as big as it should have been. A story that even she couldn't see the end of.

The voice was so close now.

But it didn't speak anymore, it was just _there_. It was waiting in the wings, waiting for the curtain to rise and the stage to light up all silver and gold.

It was night time when she heard it, she was glad the voice had tried to be stealthy. Even if it wasn't any good at it. There was an odd grinding, a lurching song that spoke of millennia of age and wisdom. Her feet were bare and made a soft patter-patter as she rushed to see it. The metal was cool and dead beneath her feet.

She found them in the hold and was blinded for a moment before she remembered to look with her eyes. One of them was a box, a blue box, and she spoke very strangely. River couldn't understand her. The other was a man in a suit whose power could put out the sun. Yes, he was the friend she'd been waiting for.

She crept closer in wonder. The hairs on her arms rose and she swore she could taste static in the air. But as she got closer she became aware it wasn't only his voice she could hear anymore, there were others now. All speaking at once. And it hurt. It really _hurt_.

She didn't realise she'd curled up all small until his hand touched her shoulder. Just like that he chased the voices away. For the first time in a long time there was just beautiful blackness and wonderful silence. Slowly she looked into his kind brown eyes. "Hello," he greeted warmly, "I'm the Doctor."

"I'm River," she replied, taking the hand he extended and standing.

He smiled at her, "it's nice to meet you, River. I'm sorry I didn't shut myself of sooner, I didn't expect a psychic as strong as you to be here, after all your kind won't exist for a list another few thousand years and well I just forget myself sometimes. Oh, I'm babbling..." He trailed off and rubbed a hand through his wild hair.

"You're like me," she said at last, moving to dance around him in a circle.

"In a way I suppose-" he agreed, rubbing his chin.

"But different," she finished for him with a bright grin. "You can see things too."

"Now now, snooping in another's head is rude," he admonished lightly. "Well that certainly is true, I see more than you though."

"You can see the end."

"Sometimes."

There was a long silence. "We're going to be friends," she continued. She swept her long hair over her shoulder and beamed once more. "I've seen it."

"Really?" He raised and raised eyebrow, "well can't say no to an offer like that."

"I like you," she paused, thinking of how to make the next words sound more normal. "You make the voices be quiet, it's easier to remember."

"Remember what?" he asked, his face suddenly concerned.

"To be a girl, to laugh and talk and things," she replied sadly. "It gets hard when there are too many voices."

"You can't shut them out by yourself?" He came closer and looked at her closely, stooping slightly because he was so tall. "Hmm, that is a problem."

"I used to be able to make them be quiet when I was little, but I didn't hear so much then. I didn't see anything at all. But then the two-by-two hands-of-blue came and chopped everything up." She stopped at looking askance.

She jumped when she felt hands on her temples and another mind inside her own. She'd heard him before and felt him but never had she truly thought _with_ him. Knowledge was pouring into her brain, facts about stars and planets and galaxies so very far away. There was a people, his people, standing tall – a sum of a code and shared suffering. Then it was gone.

"There we are," he murmured, drawing back. "I'm sorry for the intrusion and I can't promise the voices will stay away."

She'd never smiled so much, "thank you!!" She leapt into his arms and hugged him close. "If they get too bad I'll call you again," she told him seriously.

"Oh," he said, "so it was you who brought me here was it?" He chuckled to himself and released her. "Well don't hesitate to call."

He turned and began to move back to his ship.

She ran after him, "next time you come stay for tea," she asked, tugging on his coat sleeve.

He smiled over his shoulder at her, "I'd like that," he replied.

Suddenly it occurred to her that he looked so very old and tired. She frowned. "Don't worry," she told him, seizing his hand and holding it firmly. "I'll never leave you."

He just looked at her and she watched the jester mask crack for a second and felt his unbearable sorrow. "Thank you, River," he said at last.

"I'll see you soon," he called over his shoulder with a grin as he opened the door of his ship.

She waved and just like that he was gone.

----

She didn't tell the Captain or her brother that the Doctor came to visit. She didn't tell them that sometimes she went away with him in his magical machine and saw such impossible things. She didn't really tell them anything. What was there to tell?

He never failed to come when the nightmares got to strong or the monster too loud. He would stride out of the darkness, screwdriver in hand and smile on his face. Together they would defy the howling void and laugh in the face of danger.

There would be a rustle of thoughts, a whisper in the night and the undeniable knowledge that in the hold was her Doctor. The Doctor and the TARDIS, next stop: Anywhere.

It was deeper than that. Sometimes he came when she didn't call. He came when he needed_ her_. That was okay, friendship went two ways. Maybe she'd tell the others someday? Maybe she'd tell them the tale of the most important being in the universe.

But what is a story really? A series of events with a pleasing climax and endearing characters? That's all he is to some, a character removed from them and so very far away who did these incredible things. But what of the man that he is? She knew his name was the Doctor, she knew he was a Time Lord and she knew that he rescued civilisations, saved planets and defeated terrible creatures.

But that sounded more like an idea; the Doctor was a man that had almost become an idea. People remember ideas because they are powerful, five hundred years later they can still change the universe. It did also help that the Doctor was as old as time itself. She'd seen people kill in the name of ideas, and die defending them.

But that seemed so _wrong_. It was wrong to think of him that way because he was more than that. She could hold the Doctor, hug him close and laugh with him. He was more than that because ideas do not bleed, they do not feel pain, they do not love.

When she told her crew of them she would tell them of the man, not of what he'd done. A man she would never forget. But that was long a way off yet.

For now she and the Doctor were just two lonely kids that needed each other. She heard the sound of the universe and smiled as she felt the familiar touch on her mind. It was time, time to run and to explore and to laugh.

It was time to fly.

---

So what did you think? I based the ending on V for Vendetta because I think it is sort of true about the Doctor. People know of him but do not truly know him.

Anywho, on another note I am currently writing a oneshot to commemorate the end of Bioshock 2 (awesome game, buy it now....O.O) as I wrote one for teh original Bioshock, be on the lookout for it. Not sure on a name yet, but it'll probs be called _Daddy!_

Well that's me! Please review!

- D


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